328 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



the log cabin — nothing about schools and churches, which do 

 not exist ; nothing of fever and ague — nothing about lime 

 water, unless your informant wishes to apologize for not being 

 a strict temperance man — nothing about rattlesnakes and mos- 

 quitoes. You hear of nothing but great crops and rich land — 

 the bright views of the picture are presented, and the dark 

 ones veiled. So we hear of the wonderful success of the poor 

 boy who has left his father's farm and engaged in the perils of 

 trade, and after the labor of years has accumulated great 

 wealth ; but nothing is said of the other nine hundred and 

 ninety-nine, who did the same thing and failed. The one in- 

 stance of success is ever before us and the thousand failures are 

 forgotten. Each one supposes that the brilliant success will be 

 his, which can happen to only one in a thousand. Far better 

 would it be to inculcate the doctrine that true success in life is 

 not in the accumulation of great wealth, which is generally the 

 result of great hazard — not in the attainment of high office, 

 which is more often the thing of chance or of fraud than of 

 merit, but in the steady devotion to an honorable pursuit, and 

 in the acquisition of a competence for one's self and family. 

 It would be difficult in the whole world's history to point out 

 more honorable instances of true success than have been found 

 among the farmers of New England. That class of men who 

 have labored with their own hands upon the soil they have 

 always been ready to defend, — who have been ready at all 

 times, by word as well as deed, to cherish and support the insti- 

 tutions they loved. Other people may boast of their patriotism, 

 courage and chivalry — and they are usually found about in the 

 inverse ratio to the amount of boasting — but where do we find 

 better examples of them all than among the men of New Eng- 

 land ? That class who for one hundred and sixty years after 

 the settlement at Plymouth, pushed their way over our hills 

 and valleys with arms in hand, and established their homes and 

 institutions in spite of the cruelty of the savage and the hos- 

 tility of their enemies. They feared nothing but the wiles of 

 the devil, and they believed they found an effectual antidote for 

 these in free schools and in the Christian ministry. If we had 

 no other motive to cultivate our soil but a respect for these gen- 

 erations of men ; it would be enough, and I see not how a New 

 England boy can drink of the water which gushes from her 



